Emil's Epilogue

The Online Psychology Department Student Newsletter

February 2006 * Volume 6, Issue 5

This month's Psi Chi event is a Volunteer Service Project!

(more specifics coming soon)

Poem of the month:

"If Only"

By Rachel Anderson

The way I feel so weak
Whenever you are near
They way you softly speak
Sweet music to my ears

They way you always smile
So innocent, yet so true
The way you look into my eyes
If only...if only you knew

The way I wish you felt the same
And shared this feeling, too
They way you've deeply touched my heart
If only...if only you knew

How truly special you make me feel
Is what you'll never know
A secret too shy to spread it's wings
To you...it will never show

First Annual Bowling with the Psych Professors- February 20th, 2006!!!

Bowling with the professors was a huge success! Lots of students showed up, and almost every professor in the psychology department came to show off their bowling skills. Dr. Robinson consistently bowled very well, and Dr. Walker got a strike on her very first attempt! Whether they bowled a 50 or a 140, everyone had a blast. This event was nice because it allowed professors and students to mingle in an informal setting. A huge thank you goes out to all who were able to stop by! Perhaps this event sparked the beginning of an annual bowling tournament…! We’ll just have to wait and see. :-)

Conferences and Upcoming Events

Be on the lookout for several upcoming conferences where you can present psychology research papers (great for your resume and also lots of FUN). Here are some links and dates to keep in mind (yes, similar to last month, but still important for those who need to know):

National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR)

Minnesota Undergraduate Psychological Conference (MUPC)

The 41st annual MUPC will be held at The University of St. Thomas in St. Paul on Saturday, April 22, 2006.

* The deadline for submissions will be March 31st.
* The keynote speaker will be social psychologist Robert Levine from California State University in Fresno, author of A Geography of Time and The Psychology of Persuasion: How We're Bought and Sold. A link to his webpage can be found at the conference website.
* The website site is up, and includes a good deal of information about the conference (including a tentative schedule). More details will be added as April 22 approaches, so check occasionally for updates. The address for the website is: www.stthomas.edu/psy/mupc

Things for Psych Majors to Watch for:

Psi Chi monthly events! Each month, Psi Chi will have events open to all Psych majors or students taking psych classes (and friends!). Come and have fun (and often FREE FOOD)!

Psychology Student of the Week!

(Students honored for their incredible excellence in psychology for a particular week)

February 6th-February 17th

Name: Crystal Smith

Year in School: Junior

Plans after Gustavus: Hopefully, Graduate School for Neuroscience

Favorite Psychology Course and Why: I had a blast in an independent study course this summer. The program was called the Summer Institute in Neuroscience. Me and three other students visited Macalester, St. Olaf, Gustavus, and Carleton and talked with professors about their research in the Neuroscience field.

Favorite Professor and Why: It’s impossible just to choose one because I think Gustavus is really fortunate to have a department full of wonderful psychology professors. However, I have really liked working in Professor Wotton’s lab this past year, and I have also enjoyed that classes I have taken from her.

Best Psychology Related Memory: When I went to the Psychology Christmas party at Lee’s house and got the “50 Great Cheap Dates” deck of cards in the white elephant exchange.

Do you have any Advice or Suggestion to other Psychology Majors for making the Most out of your Psychology Career at Gustavus: I know it’s really redundant, but…get to know your professors, get involved in research, and come to the fun activities that the Psych. Department and Psi Chi hosts!!!

AND

Name: Chris Rozek

Year in School: Senior

Plans after Gustavus: Grad school and football

Favorite Psychology Course and Why: SOCIAL PSYCH...it’s what I do!

Favorite Professor and Why: I’ve had fun with all the professors here and would have a hard time choosing one, so I’m going to say Lee Sande (although she’s not a prof, she is the glue that holds the department together). You just have to meet her to get to know the awesomeness that is Lee!

Best Psychology Related Memory: Standing up for an entire meal at Perkins for a social psych assignment to violate norms—people aren’t too used to seeing that! Soon to be bowling with the profs!

Do you Have any Advice or Suggestion to other Psychology Majors for making the Most out of your Psychology Career at Gustavus: Meet and talk to the professors whenever you can! I've also found that the Psi Chi officers are very helpful with any questions I've had about psychology, grad school, jobs, or even life--get to know them!

February 20th-February 24th

Name: Bradley William Hammer

Year in School: Senior

Plans after Gustavus: Work a political campaign until the election, loaf around a couple months and do some traveling, then head back to grad school the following fall. I was also considering a life of crime, not like drug dealing or anything, but cool stuff like the bad guys in the James Bond movies.

Favorite Psychology Course and Why: Adult Psych, we had great discussions and I really felt like I got to know the people I took the class with, even the professor, Dick Martin.

Favorite Professor and Why: I can’t say that I have one favorite professor. They’re like snowflakes… I’m not sure where I was going with that.

Best Psychology Related Memory: In Behaviorism my freshman j-term, my group trained a rat, Wally the Wonder Rat. Re-enacting a Gustavus tradition we trained him to drink at a little bar, kiss a girl, and put his head it a toilet.

Do you Have any Advice or Suggestion to other Psychology Majors for making the most out of your Psychology Career at Gustavus: Psychology gives you such a great background to do so many different things, don’t feel limited by careers and opportunities that are labeled in the area of psychology. Expand your knowledge of psych to other disciplines and you’ll find fascinating things. I’m going into politics as a psych major and I’ve found what I’ve learned to be very useful. Also, in Stats II, make sure you find your project interesting; you’ll find it much easier to put in the work if you care about the results. Finally, always remember… we built this city on rock and roll.

Look out! You could be the next Psychology Student of the Week!

A Structuralist, Functionalist, and Behaviorist Look at:

SHYNESS

By Chris Rozek

Structuralism, founded by Wundt and one of the first types of psychology, attempted to analyze the mind by finding the basic elements of consciousness. Structuralists would look at shyness in very specific way. First, they would concentrate on the basic elements of consciousness that go along with shyness. They would divide the experience of shyness into its different sensations, images, and feelings. To find out these parts of the conscious experience, structuralists would use the method of introspection. Introspection is where people rigidly look into themselves in an attempt to isolate all of the component parts of one conscious experience. So, structuralists would have a person look inward and describe the sensations, images, and feelings the experience of shyness brought up in them. An example of introspection might be this: I feel fear, I remember my father, and I have a picture of a rose in my head. Structuralists would try to obtain the most specific and basic parts of shyness so they would eventually be able to say shyness is made up of these specific things. Then, they would know what the conscious experience of shyness was to the people they tested. They would know the basic structure of the conscious experience.

Functionalism, founded as a reaction against structuralism, focused on finding the function of mind and behavior. The goal of functionalism was to find the purpose, the how, and the why of the conscious experience. Describing what the experience was had little importance. Functionalists attempted to find the purpose or function of the experience and would use this knowledge to analyze it. In looking at shyness, functionalists would be interested in what this experience accomplishes. Since many Darwinian principles are used in functionalism, functionalists might look at why people have shyness and what purpose it serves them. They would want to know the value shyness has for people, how it helps them, and the adaptive significance of it. For example, a functionalist might decide through research that shyness is used by people to avoid situations that might be dangerous. After understanding the goal of shyness, a functionalist would look at how the different parts of the mind are used to attain this conscious experience. Functionalists always stay focused on the function of an experience in order to analyze it.

Behaviorism, lead by Watson and Skinner, took a major step away from both structuralism and functionalism. Behaviorists were concerned with only behavior; they were not concerned about what was happening in a person’s consciousness. They believed that people were a product of their environment and nothing else. People, basically, had no choice in what happened since they were shaped by things around them. This meant that behaviorists only wanted to focus on the actual behavior of people--what went on in a person’s consciousness was not important. So, in looking at shyness, behaviorists would look at a person’s observable actions. Behaviorists would first find a way to measure a person’s shyness. Then, they would look at how that person’s environment had changed them to be shy. An example might be this: a thirty-year-old man is shy because, as a child, he was spanked every time he talked to other people. Therefore, behaviorists would define shyness as a reaction against changes in a person’s environment. Lastly, behaviorists would always try to be scientific in their studies. They wanted psychology to be a science based on observation, objective measurement, and repeatability.

New Joke...

Mental Health Hotline:

"Hello and welcome to the MENTAL HEALTH HOTLINE.

If you are suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, press 1, repeatedly.

If you are Co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2 for you.

If you have Multiple Personalities, press 3, 4, 5 & 6.

If you are Paranoid, we know who you are and what you want. Stay on the line so we can trace your call.

If you are Delusional, press 7, and your call will be transferred to the Mother Ship.

If you are Schizophrenic, listen carefully and a small voice will tell you which number to press.

If you are a Manic-depressive, it doesn't matter which number you press ... no-one will answer.

If you are Dyslexic, press 96969696969696.

If you have a Nervous Disorder, please fidget with the hash key until a representative comes on the line.

If you have Amnesia, press 8 and state your name, address, phone number, date of birth, social security number and your mother's and grandmother's maiden names.

If you have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, slowly and carefully press 000.

If you have Bi-polar Disorder, please leave a message after the beep. Or before the beep. Or after the beep. Please wait for the beep.

If you have Short-Term Memory Loss, please try your call again later.

If you have Low Self Esteem, please hang up. All our operators are far too busy to talk to you. "